Tata Steel strengthens
Tata Steel rose 2.41% to Rs 694.25 at 10:02 IST on BSE on reports the company plans to list a holding firm for steel and raw material assets outside India, on the London Stock Exchange to raise funds for acquiring iron ore and coal mines. Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 57.98 points, or 0.42%, to 14,022.24.
On BSE, 1.45 lakh shares were traded in the counter. The scrip had an average daily volume of 12.09 lakh shares in the past one quarter.
The stock hit a high of Rs 700.20 and a low of Rs 662 so far during the day. The stock had a 52-week high of Rs 969.80 on 29 October 2007 and a 52-week low of Rs 471.07 on 17 August 2007.
The world's sixth-largest steel maker had outperformed the market over the past one month till 9 July 2008, declining 17.41% compared to the Sensex's decline of 6.21%. It also outperformed the market in the past one quarter, declining 1.17% compared to Sensex's decline of 11.03%.
The company has an equity capital of Rs 730.58 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.
The current price of Rs 694.25 discounts its Q4 March 2008 annualised EPS of Rs 65.98, by a PE multiple of 10.52.
Tata Steel Global Resources is the holding company of Tata Steel for steel and raw material assets outside India. Reports added that Tata Steel would also use the funds to repay part of the debt it took to buy Corus Plc., a 20-million-tonne steel maker in the UK, in 2007.
Tata Steel had completed the acquisition of Corus in late 2007 in a £6.2 billion deal to become the world's sixth largest steel maker by capacity.
Tata Steel reported 195.64% jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 12349.98 crore on 415.04% growth in total income to Rs 132110.09 crore in the year ended March 2008 over the year ended March 2007. The consolidated results are non-comparable due to merger Corus Group with Tata Steel in the year ended March 2008 (FY 2008).
At the time of announcing the results, Tata Steel managing director B. Muthuraman said it had raised prices for one-year steel sale contracts. 25% of Tata Steel's total sales were through annual contracts, he said.
Tata Steel is engaged in manufacture and distribution of steel, welded steel tubes, cold rolled strips, bearings and other related products and services. The company, along with its associates, has operations in 24 countries and commercial presence in more than 50 countries. The steel maker owns Corus, Tata Steel Thailand (formerly Millennium Steel) and NatSteel Asia.
The company's net profit rose 9.20% to Rs 1205.51 crore on 15.20% rise in net sales to Rs 5736.69 crore in Q4 March 2008 over Q4 March 2007.